After it's 4th weekend of release in the United States, Finding Dory has officially become the highest grossing domestic release of 2016, beating out Marvel's Captain America: Civil War with $422.6M! Civil War has a cumulative domestic gross of $406.2M. Although Finding Dory still has a ways to go before hitting the billion dollar global box office mark, Pixar's latest entry still stands at a very comfortable $642.8M worldwide box office gross. All is not lost globally as Finding Dory's upcoming theatrical releases in the UK and Japan look to bring fuel to Dory's box office fire. More on Finding Dory's box office success after the break!

This weekend's latest animated film release, Universal and Illumination Entertainment's The Secret Life of Pets, which grossed an impressive domestic debut of $103M, cements the last four weeks of the top domestic box office film held by animated films, which is a very exciting trend. Both Finding Dory and now The Secret Life of Pets, along with this years previous box office juggernaut Zootopia, have proven that animated films are trusted as reliable critical fair when a family decides to spend the weekend at the movies. This trend is good for all animation studios- just as the saying goes: 'a rising tied lifts all boats.'

With Finding Dory's incredible success both financially and critically, Walt Disney Pictures continues it's incredible banner year with 4 out of the top 5 films of 2016 being Disney releases. This graph showing the relationship between Rotten Tomatoes score (critical reception) and Domestic Gross (financial success) showcases just how audiences are flocking to see well-told family-oriented stories. Finding Dory now sits as the prime example of this growing trend: